In Maine, a pediatrician sees teenagers so dependent on cannabis that they consume it practically all day, every day — “a remarkably scary amount,”
Nationwide, psychiatrists treat rising numbers of people whose use of the drug has brought on delusions, paranoia and other symptoms of psychosis.
In emergency departments of small community hospitals and large academic medical centers, physicians encounter patients with severe vomiting induced by the drug, a potentially devastating condition that once was rare but now is common.
As marijuana legalization has accelerated, doctors are contending with the effects of an explosion in the use of the drug and its intensity. A $33 billion industry is turning out an ever-expanding range of cannabis products that bear little resemblance to the marijuana available a generation ago.
Tens of millions of Americans use the drug, for medical or recreational purposes, mostly without problems.
With more people consuming more potent cannabis more often, a growing number are enduring serious health consequences, the New York Times reports.
The harm is more severe than previously reported. Gaps in state regulations, limited public health messaging and federal restraints on research have left many consumers, government officials and medical practitioners in the dark.
Many users believe wrongly that people cannot become addicted to cannabis. About 18 million people — nearly a third of all users ages 18 and up — have reported symptoms of cannabis use disorder, according to estimates from a data analysis by a Columbia University epidemiologist.
Of those, about three million people are considered addicted. The estimates are based on responses to the 2022 U.S. national drug use survey from people who reported any cannabis consumption within the previous year. More than 4.5 million people ages18- to 25 use the drug daily or near daily, and 81 percent of those users meet the criteria for the disorder.
“That means almost everybody that uses it every day is reporting problems with it,” said Dr. Wilson Compton of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “That is a very clear warning sign.”
The Times examined medical records and public health and insurance data; reviewed scientific research; and interviewed more than 200 health officials, doctors, regulators and consumers. Reporters surveyed more than 200 physicians in about a half-dozen specialties and almost 600 people who suffer from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.
Some of the ill effects have been reported in academic studies or news stories. The data and interviews found new, detailed evidence of the health risks and growing alarm among doctors and researchers.